The Beer Nut: Pick a pumpkin from this patch

Wednesday

It's officially fall, and that means liquor store shelves are full of pumpkin beers. The number of pumpkin beers can be dizzying - how do you know which one is best?

It's officially fall, and that means liquor store shelves are full of pumpkin beers.

The number of pumpkin beers can be dizzying - how do you know which one is best? Should you go cheap and grab Shipyard's Pumpkinhead Ale, or maybe splurge and pick up a bottle of Southern Tier's Pumking, which will cost nearly as much as a six-pack of Pumpkinhead?

So this week I'm going to help you find the best pumpkin ale you can get.

I conducted a blind tasting of 12 pumpkin beers, and they were judged based solely on taste.

The tasters were MetroWest Daily News reporter Charlie Breitrose, Framingham/Natick Tab Editor Phil Maddocks, Milford Daily News Editor Bethany Edwards and me. The beers were judged on aroma, mouth-feel and taste, on a point scale of 1 to 5. The highest score a beer could receive was 60, and the lowest was 4.

1. Hoppin' Frog's Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale (50.5 points)

Hoppin' Frog's version of a pumpkin beer is an imperial pumpkin ale coming in at 8.4 percent alcohol by volume. I found this beer to have great aroma, creamy and sweet in a good way. Bethany said it was "flavorful, complex mixes together so well not one flavor stands out."

2. Lakefront Pumpkin Lager (49 points)

The only lager in the group. It was high on everyone's scorecard. Phil said it had a "complete taste. Full flavor. Pleasant blend." Charlie said it had a "sweet, fruity smell" and it had "great balance."

3. Southern Tier's Pumking (48.5 points)

This beer has the highest alcohol of any of the beers we tested at 9 percent ABV, although you can't detect any alcohol flavor at all. Bethany described it as "yummy, sweet, nutty, sweet, spicy, sweet" and "enjoyable to drink." Charlie found it "Good, but not great."

4. Anheuser-Busch's Jack's Pumpkin Spice (43 points)

This is one that shocked me, and proved we had no idea which beers we were drinking. Who would have thought a beer made by the same brewery as Budweiser would score so high? I found the spices to be nicely balanced. In many pumpkin beers, the cinnamon, brown sugar and cloves that are often used can be overwhelming. Phil said it had a "nice flavor blend with subtle complexity."

5. Dogfish Head's Punkin' Ale (41.5 points)

This was one of the most full-bodied beers with a good amount of spices. I described it in my quickly written notes as "pleasant to drink." Charlie described it as "more balanced than the others. Pleasantly malty, with light hoppiness."

6. (Tie) Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale (38.5 points)

This beer is often derided among craft beer drinkers because of heavy, buttery flavors some people say they can taste, but it scored in the top half of our blind taste test. Bethany said it had "an even flavor from beginning to end," and Charlie said it was "refreshing" and a good beer to drink after a day of raking leaves.

6. (Tie) Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (38.5 points)

A popular New England beer, Bethany said it had a full body and "more beer flavor" than the other beers. Phil said it had a "pleasant, dry taste" with a "slight pumpkin taste."

8. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale (38 points)

This is another imperial pumpkin ale, coming in at 8 percent ABV. Compared to the other beers, I could taste the alcohol in this the most and I thought it was middle of the road. Phil said the pumpkin flavor was "subtle," but it had a "complex aftertaste."

9. Four + Brewing Company's Punk'n Ale (35.5 points)

Charlie said this beer had good carbonation but thought the "alcohol was too strong." Bethany thought the Punk'n had a "thin flavor that doesn't pack much of a punch; watery."

10. Wolaver's Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale (33.5 points)

This was the only organic beer in the bunch and is brewed with pumpkins grown in Vermont. I thought this beer was light in body and flavor and found nothing that stood out about it. Phil, on the other hand, said it had a "nice spice aroma," and a "nice blend of flavors."

11. Cambridge Brewing Company's Great Pumpkin Ale (33 points)

This beer is only available at the company's brewpub in Cambridge and has the lowest amount of alcohol of all the beers, coming in at 4.2 percent APV. Bethany said it had a "balanced flavor from sip to swallow." Charlie said he found it to be too "light on his tongue."

12. Brooklyn Brewing Company's Post Road Pumpkin Ale (28 points)

I think this beer was hurt most by its slot in the lineup it was the last of the 12 beers sampled, and I think most of our palates were fried. I thought it was full of unpleasant "off-flavors," while Bethany said there was "not a lot of depth" to the beer.

It's always challenging to compare things that seem so similar but, sometimes, can prove to have so many differences. We found the latter to be true here. Although all the beers featured pumpkin in their brews, there were so many different styles and alcohol levels it was hard to accurately judge each beer.

Let your own taste buds be the final judge, and use our opinions as a guide.

There are many other pumpkin beers out there, and maybe this will help pique your interest in some of them. Remember, just because some may have scored lower than others doesn't mean you won't enjoy them.